Adjectives/Transcript
Transcript Original Version Text Reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim & Moby Update Version Text Reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim & Moby Moby sits at a computer typing. He presses one final key with a proud flourish and leans back with a satisfied look. MOBY: Beep Tim enters the room and looks surprised to see Moby sitting there. TIM: Huh? Tim begins to read what Moby has written on the computer screen. It is a book report. The text appears on screen as Tim reads. TIM: Kids find tickets in their candy and win a contest. Their prize is a tour of a candy factory. It's led by the factory's owner. Moby beams with pride, but Tim looks skeptical. TIM: The book sounds, uh… really great. Moby holds up a copy of ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.'' TIM: Oh, I've read that story. It is great! MOBY: Beep Moby hands Tim a piece of paper. Tim reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, My teacher says I should use adjectives when I write. Why? From, Sarah TIM: Hey Sarah! Adjectives are one of the eight parts of speech. Those are categories of words that do the same thing in a sentence. As Tim speaks, a chart lists different parts of speech: adverb, pronoun, verb, noun, adjective, conjunction, preposition, and interjection. TIM: Like how verbs tell you the action that's happening. And nouns name the people, places, and things in a sentence. An animation shows Moby bouncing a ball. Above Moby, a sentence reads, "Moby bounces the ball." The different parts of speech are underlined as Tim describes them. "Bounces" is the verb, and "Moby" and "ball" are the nouns. Then the sentence changes. It now reads, "Moby bounces the red ball." The ball in the animation turns red. The word "red" is labeled as an adjective in the sentences. TIM: Adjectives modify, or describe, those nouns. They tell us how nouns look or feel; what they're made of; how many there are; or who they belong to. The adjective in the example sentence changes as Tim describes. First it reads, "Moby bounces the rubber ball." Then it reads, "Moby bounces the one ball." And finally it reads, "Moby bounces his ball." The words "rubber," "one," and "his" are all labeled as adjectives. TIM: Adjectives can add details to your writing, making it more interesting. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, let's take a look at your first line here. TIM: Instead of, "Kids find tickets hidden in their candy and win a contest…" Let's go with, "Five lucky kids find golden tickets hidden in their candy and win a big contest. Their prize is a thrilling tour of a giant candy factory. It's led by the factory's strange and mysterious owner." The text appears on screen as Tim reads it. The following adjectives are highlighted in red: five, lucky, golden, big, thrilling, giant, strange, and mysterious. As Tim reads, animations illustrate what he describes. Five kids hold up golden tickets that sparkle. Moby sashays into the scene dressed as Willy Wonka. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it sounds a lot more intriguing now, right? The adjectives add more information, and they liven up the sentences. MOBY: Beep. Moby types enthusiastically. TIM: You're a noun-modifying machine, all right! But you've taken it a bit far here. Moby frowns. TIM: Adjectives can make your descriptions more vivid… but only up to a point. TIM: "Five lucky kids find shiny golden tickets in their delicious candy and win an international contest." The sentence appears on screen as Tim reads. The following adjectives are highlighted in red: five, lucky, shiny, golden, delicious, and international. Animations fill the screen to illustrate all the adjectives Moby has added to the sentence. TIM: It's feels kinda… overloaded, doesn't it? We don't need to describe every noun in the sentence. Save it for stuff that's important or interesting. Like, does the reader really need to know that candy is delicious? And isn't anything that's golden also, you know, shiny? The words "delicious" and "shiny" disappear from the sentence as Tim describes. Their corresponding animations also disappear. TIM: There, "Five lucky kids find golden tickets in their candy and win an international contest." Hear how much better it flows with just two adjectives gone? MOBY: Beep. Moby looks at another sentence on the computer screen. Tim peers over his shoulder. TIM: Oh, that one's a doozy. "Their prize is a thrilling and special and awesome and top-secret tour of a giant candy factory." The sentence appears on screen as Tim reads. The following adjectives are highlighted in red: thrilling, special, awesome, top-secret, and giant. An animation shows Moby dressed up as Willy Wonka. He is standing in front of the chocolate factory next to a sign that says, Tour Starts Here. TIM: So first of all, when you have a list of more than two adjectives in a row, it's usually best to separate them with commas. Willy Wonka Moby deletes all of the "ands" in the sentence by tapping them with a giant candy cane. Now the sentence reads, "Their prize is a thrilling, special, awesome, top-secret tour of a giant candy factory." TIM: But in any case, "thrilling, special, awesome, and top-secret" is way more info than we need about this tour. I mean, "thrilling, special, and awesome" all mean about the same thing anyway, right? Let's lose "special" and "awesome;" they're not quite as specific as "thrilling." Willy Wonka Moby taps the words "special" and "awesome" with his candy cane and they disappear. The sentence now reads, "Their prize is a thrilling, top-secret tour of a giant candy factory." MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oh yeah, good catch. When you have two adjectives in a row, you can separate them with a comma, like we did here, or with an "and," like we did earlier. Different sentences appear to illustrate the options Tim describes. TIM: It's your decision on which one sounds better in a particular sentence. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yep, a lot of the decisions about adjectives are up to you! There's no strict rule for how many to use, or which ones to pick. Different writers will make different choices, depending on their unique style. An animation shows a group of stick figure writers. All of them are taking a different approach to writing. TIM: You can also choose where to place adjectives in a sentence. They can go before a noun, like you've done. Or after a noun, often with a form of the verb "to be." An animation shows a sentence that reads, "It's led by the factory's strange and mysterious owner." Then the words shuffle around to form a new sentence that reads, "It's led by the factory's owner who is strange and mysterious." TIM: The more you practice writing, the more you'll figure out what sounds best. You'll develop your very own writing style! MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, there's a lot more to learn about adjectives, not to mention all the other parts of speech! Whether you're writing or speaking, the parts of speech are like your tools. An animation shows a popup of Moby typing. Circles labeled with the different parts of speech appear around him. Then the words in the circles morph into different tools. Moby reaches out of his popup and grabs a saw. TIM: Understanding how they work will help you build strong sentences. Plus, you'll have the language to talk about how our language works. You won't have to say, "Put that whatsit kind of word before that whosit kinda word, and cut the thingamajig over there." Learn the parts of speech, and your sentences will be… Tim notices Moby has started to saw his computer in half. TIM: That's not how you're supposed to use those! Category:BrainPOP Transcripts